Recording Rules

"People can fail to record their interests, or record them improperly, and an unscrupulous grantor may grant the same land twice. Under the common-law rule of first in time, first in right, the first buyer would receive the property and the second buyer would take nothing. Recording statutes create exceptions to that rule and protect a purchaser according to the type of statute involved. Under a race statute, the first grantee to record prevails against all other grantees, regardless of the order in which the grants were received. Under a notice statute, the last purchaser who took without notice of any other grant wins; recording constitutes notice. Under a race-notice statute, the last purchaser wins if that purchaser had no notice at the time of the grant and records first. Recorded deeds generally give notice, but problems can arise when a deed is outside the chain of title. In Brown v. Lober, the plaintiffs purchased 80 acres and received a statutory warranty deed containing no exceptions. The trial court held that a breach of the covenant of seisin had occurred but that the action was barred by the applicable statute of limitations. The plaintiffs later asserted a breach of the covenant of quiet enjoyment, but that claim was also denied."